This is my blog. So far most of the entries are about sports. Please check out my autism site at www.coachmike.net and my photography site at www.mikefrandsen.net. Please also see my sports articles at http://www.examiner.com/sports-in-washington-dc/mike-frandsen and http://bleacherreport.com/users/583899-mike-frandsen, my autism articles at http://www.examiner.com/dc-in-national/mike-frandsen, and www.myredskinsblog.com. By Mike Frandsen.

The Montreal Canadiens returned starting goalie Jaroslav Halak to the net and he made 37 saves as the Habs beat the Caps 2-1 at Verizon Center Friday night. Washington leads the best of seven Eastern Conference series 3-2.

Halak shut down the highest scoring team in the NHL and Washington’s power play woes continued as the Caps failed on five extra man opportunities. The Caps are now one out of 24 on the power play for the series.

I’m not sure why ESPN had Jon Gruden hog so much coverage last night in the NFL draft. We hear enough of Gruden monday nights — this was supposed to be Mel Kiper Jr.’s day. ESPN blew it. They should’ve had Kiper doing a summary of each player right after they were picked. Who cares what Gruden thinks? Kiper is the draft guru.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised that much of the media and public opinion has been against Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was suspended by the NFL today for 4-6 games for violating the NFL’s conduct policy. While Roethlisberger wasn’t charged with a crime, the police report in his most recent brush with the law states that the alleged victim in the case claims that Roethlisberger sexually assaulted her. The details don’t look good for Big Ben.

In the past, sports fans usually have defended the accused athletes in similar cases, believing that the alleged victims are trying to get money from the athletes. So it’s nice to see the victim getting the benefit of the doubt for once.

On the other hand, Michael Wilbon’s defense multiple times on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,” of Roethlisberger seems particularly boorish. Wilbon seems to have a “boys will be boys” attitude and implies that he’s seen worse. Incidentally, Wilbon’s writing quality seems to have slipped since his top priority has become TV. Wilbon is no longer the best writer in D.C.

By the way, expect Byron Leftwich to start and play well for the Steelers during Roethlisberger’s suspension. ESPN did 10 minutes on Roethlisberger today without even mentioning who his replacement would be.

Play dates are invaluable in helping children with autism learn the social skills that are so necessary to be happy and successful in life. Social skills, which come naturally to most typical children, are often severely delayed in kids on the autism spectrum.

If the Capitals are going to advance deep in the Stanley Cup playoffs, they’ll need to get some easy wins. Washington got one Monday night, 5-1 over the Canadiens in Montreal.

The Caps scored four unanswered goals in the second period and Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves as Washington cruised to a 2-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. The Caps outshot the Canadiens 36-27 in winning their second straight game.

Down by three goals, the Capitals mounted a furious comeback and defeated the Montreal Canadiens 6-5 in Game 2 of their opening round playoff series, thanks to a hat trick and an overtime goal by Nicklas Backstrom.

The fans got their money’s worth in a wild contest at Verizon Center that saw the Caps come back from a 4-1 deficit and featured 11 goals including hat tricks by Backstrom and Andrei Kostitsyn.

Alexander Ovechkin rebounded from a lackluster effort in Game 1 to score a goal and assist on three others, and got involved in the game early with physical play.